OK, it’s been a while since our last Recipe of the Week post, but here we go. Our New Year’s Eve dinner was inspiring!

We tried a new Barefoot Contessa pasta recipe — Tagliarelle with White Truffle Butter, and we did a basic green salad with a lemon-y vinaigrette to accompany. Ina Garten (aka the Contessa) is a perpetual fave in our house for her simple, satisfying meals. (And it doesn’t hurt a bit that she’s a big fan of butter in copious amounts.)

We’ve been cooking and entertaining a lot lately, and so for New Year’s Eve (of course going out wasn’t even on the table…), we wanted something easy but that also felt special. Ina‘s secret ingredient of white truffle butter — decadent, unusual, and absolutely packed with flavor — made the meal.

Heat heavy cream until it comes to a simmer, then swirl in the butter with some salt and pepper until the butter melts. Lower the heat. Boil the pasta (it’s fast-cooking, so this recipe is really made in a snap) and reserve some of the cooking liquid. Drain the pasta and add it to the truffle-cream mixture. Add cooking water if necessary (we found we didn’t need to.) Garnish with chopped chives and shaved Parmesan. Here’s the full recipe from the Food Network.

We were so busy oooh-ing and aaah-ing over the dish that it didn’t occur to me to snap a photo for this post until we’d already eaten it all up — but at least you have a visual for what to look for when you shop for the special butter. This pasta would make an excellent dinner party dish — it’s both easy and impressive.

Enjoy!

Do you have a favorite Barefoot Contessa recipe? Or did you cook something for New Year’s Eve that you thought was delicious? We’d love to hear….

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4 Responses to “Recipe of the Week: The Barefoot Contessa’s Tagliarelle with Truffle Butter”

I/we love everything Ina makes too. On New Years Day I made her awesome Caesar with roasted tomatoes and pancetta (cuz bacon makes everything better) and lemony shrimp scampi over linguini. Delish. Going to have to try this one as soon as I can get my hands on some truffle butter.

Truffle butter? How incredibly ambitious. After a week of hosting family and the resulting culinary fiesta, all we could muster for New Years was Chinese food, which was salty and delicious, all the same. But we did make the Contessa’s granola bars on New Years Day – good family project and excellent way to use up the random dried fruit that had not yet managed to get lodged between the carseats. We deluded ourselves into thinking they are healthy (they have wheat germ, right?) but, really, they were just delicious.

We’re home cooks, not pros, but I wouldn’t want to recommend mixing the truffle oil with butter since I couldn’t give you exact amount suggestions or vouch for the success! If you can’t find the truffle butter at your local grocery store, maybe you could try a specialty foods store if there’s one nearby or order it online as we suggest in the post through dartagnan.com